No, I generally assume good intentions from others, especially on Lemmy, even when they’re not exactly picking up what I’m putting down. On the occasions when it does anger me it’s usually because either my ego is especially sensitive that day, or I’m irritated by something else, hunger, life frustrations, etc. and it’s bleeding through in my interactions with others.

Thankfully when I find myself yelling at clouds online, somebody usually reminds me to relax, let go of the ego, and the people I’m talking to are just humans, too, and I should exercise the same patience with them as I would like for myself.

Lol, Ok, grandpa, let’s get you into bed.

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🤣 Ha ha ha, That’s great!

Hey! That’s my fart!

That guy just farted my fart!

Is there no justice in this world??

If it makes you feel better, I don’t think being able to visualize helps as much as it would seem. Drawing is just hard. I say this as someone who has a very active mental imager and has been drawing (poorly) my whole life. The technical aspects of drawing/painting etc., is really just about understanding the theory, application, and practice.

Does it help? Sure, a little but nothing I’ve ever drawn has come out looking like the mental picture with any satisfaction and I could probably do just as well with a verbal or written description to go off of. And references, of course. Several famous modern artists have aphantasia.

Easy to confuse, these are actually art critics.

I’m a savage, only desert blushes for me.

You’re not wrong. America is just about as imperialist as they come in the modern sense. The bulk of the ‘glorious history’ of Americanism is simply being in the right place at the right time in world development and a whole lot of Hollywood. It’s been bullshit from the very beginning. The same as any large and expanding country since the beginning of time.

That said, there are only two options for humans, sit down in defeat, weighed under the crushing conformity of tradition. Or set a new course and brave the inertia and violent established interests.

You and I are more alike than we are to our respective leaders. Thus, the common man must join forces with all neighbors to climb on the back of our wolves and hold on tightly by the ears. A government unchecked by its people is a dangerous and rampaging beast. It’s our responsibility to hold our governments to higher standards. By force if necessary, but it must also come by working through and changing the system wherever possible.

That’s the way it is but not the way it should or can be.

The American people have largely abandoned their civic duty and disengaged from the process. We are reaping what we, and our parents, have sown and it’s not pretty. Complacency, escapism, consumerism, feelings of disempowerment, having taken their toll.

Contrast that to a literal workforce that runs 24/7 backed by billions from special interest groups who have been seeking to undermine the republic for decades now. Decades. It’s no wonder the system is corrupt and the democratic process fails to serve the people. We’ve allowed it to happen, but we can also undo the damage.

It’s an uphill battle but the garden belongs to the people. The fruits of our labors belong in our baskets. This miasma can be dispelled the moment people say they’ve had enough and stand up en masse.

Word.

Every time an article like this comes and you are tempted to reply to the seemingly inevitable creeping surveillance apparatus with “well, it can’t stop a paintball/hacksaw/.50 cal/etc. etc.” you need to stop.

Stop for a moment and listen to yourself. Look at the bigger picture. I admire the bravado and pushback but does this really sound like a reasonable solution to a systemic issue? That’s like saying “if I think there’s cockroaches infesting my house, I’ll just step on everyone I see” Like that is going to solve the problem.

(And honestly, are you really going to get off your lazy ass, go buy a portable angle grinder and go cut down a light pole in the middle of the night? Really? How many beers does that take?)

So, next time you want to post something like that, instead, just post a link in support to the person, be it a politician or advocate, who is willing to legislate against this encroachment of privacy.

Oh, you don’t know of any?

Well maybe that’s actually getting to the heart of the problem.

This is true everywhere, but especially in the US, if you are looking right now at current events aghast with a feeling of doom rolling over you- that is the sign.

It’s time to stop being a passive acceptor of circumstances. It’s time to act.

We have to dig political aspirants out of the woodwork and push them onto the stage. There is somebody in your area that is capable of advocating for your rights. You need to find them.

If you can’t find a local group. Start a discord, IRC, hell facebook page, what ever, just start connecting people in your town, in your neighborhood. All it takes is a few minutes a day to start.

You have to be politically active. Or else your future is going in the meat grinder. Nobody is coming to save you.

There is no group who has an interest in keeping you, your society, your children, your futures, free from fascist control. Not the DNC, not the State government, not city hall. There is only you and your friends. You have to fight for it yourselves. When the garden is left untended the weeds take over. The weeds have taken over. It’s time to return to the garden.

It can be done. The people hold all the power - Provided They Are Given A Plan of Action To Follow. You need to help craft that plan. Organizing and agitating gets results. Facts.

Stop posting bullshit on Lemmy and start posting real shit in your local advocacy group.

Oh yeah, and watch some roasts of famous people. That stuff is comedy gold.

While everyone is giving you good advice about how to be yourself and how to deal with jerks, I am going to take a different approach and simply answer your question.

In order to have wit you have to have two things: an understanding of humor and thick skin.

Understanding humor means being able to break apart the message and find a way to reinterpret it in a relevant but unexpected way. The surprise is the key to a good joke, but it has to make sense. Humor exposes a truth, thus, an intentionally funny person must be able to see the truth in the world and in themselves.

Humor is a tool that takes the form of what you need. It can be a weapon, to insult or make foolish, a shield that repels, a cloak to hide your feelings or intentions, a clown nose to make another laugh, and so on.

The best way to learn humor is by listening to funny people. Watch a lot of stand-up comedians. Not only will it make your day brighter but you will absorb the essence of humor. Watch comedians that work the crowd. See how they get people to interact with them, how they handle hecklers. Even when they are under extreme pressure by performing in front of an audience, they always seem to be in control of themselves. That’s how you need to be.

The second part is just as important as the first. You have to have thick skin. You can’t take things personally. Humor and wit comes from a special mental place. Being too angry or hurt will prevent you from accessing this type of witty thinking. It requires a bit of cool confidence, in that even if everything else about you is lousy, you know you have the power of communication to protect or devastate at your fingertips.

To be able to clap back at someone quickly means brushing off what they say, analyzing the statement to find how to turn it around in an unexpected way, and then deliver it, not with hot anger, but with a cool, calculated malice. Slip the verbal knife between their ribs with a practiced ease and a smirk.

Do this enough and you’ll get faster and faster. Pretty soon you’re not even thinking on a conscious level. It only takes milliseconds to react, like a gunslinger.

Match the level. An eye for an eye. If someone is giving you a good natured poke, you can play along with them and take the ‘abuse’ in a funny way, or you can zing one back at them. Or even deflect it with a humorous meta comment.

If they are testing you, increase the pressure.

If they are mean spirited, go for the jugular.

You have to keep your feelings in check to respond at an appropriate level.

Being funny is a skill. But it’s one that is hard to learn by thinking about it. You see it in action and you have to practice it.

Read famous insults by kings, stars, world leaders, etc. A lot of public facing people were very funny when the time was right, and had to be because they faced constant criticism.

Read classic humorous essays. Watch entertaining people tell a story. Try some jokes out in the mirror. Make a funny observation about something or someone to a friend. Don’t be afraid to look foolish, once you’ve embarrassed yourself enough trying to make people laugh, no insult in the world can affect you.

Hope this helps.

Source: Me, a resplendent fool

Justifiable? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not an armchair ethics professor like most of the nerds in this discussion.

I cut out all all the extra dance steps and forgo justification entirely. If I want it, I’ll attempt to take it one way or another.

The Sword of Shadows series. By J.V. Jones.

The best fantasy I have read in decades. It rivals, and in some ways, is better than A Song of Ice and Fire.

And after almost a 15 year wait the penultimate book is done and the author appears to be back in the saddle to finish the series.

It is grimdark fantasy at its finest. And Jones was one of the original genre-defining authors.

I wouldn’t trust any of the current producers to do it, or any decent book, justice, though. Seems like LotR was the last really epic adaptation.

I hate that I was compelled to count the syllables in this.

“It’s an older poetry form, sir, but it checks out.”

Yo, dawg, we heard you like tabs…

I don’t know! I’ve already got enough shit to worry about and now you want me to contemplate imminent doom.

It wasn’t a mistake. Maven wasn’t over relied upon, there were no failures in vetting. They don’t care. The people who would care have been removed.

To kill a bunch of innocent children… It’s monstrous. The minds of those who would perpetrate such an act are stained with an evil so dark it sickens the average man.

Humans can be terrible, terrible, creatures.